any immediate economic setback or the perception of one could weaken obama's clout or at least distract him as he carefully tries to put his imprint on initiatives dealing with immigration and gun violence. let's talk about it with a.b. stoddard, an associate editor and columnist for "the hill." a.b., the president has been mostly talking about immigration and gun violence lately, and yet we still have an unemployment rate at 7.8%. if labor force participation were the same as when he took office, it would be over 10%. we've got a fall in our nation's economic output in the last quarter, and you've got new, um, shrinking of consumer confidence. those are some pretty big issues. does that threaten to derail what the president wants to accomplish? >> well, it will. you mentioned before whether or not these issues would distract him. i mean, a troubled economy has to distract him whether or not he actually focuses on it is another question. much of these last few months were taken up by after the election the president continuing his campaign for extending tax cuts, um, for everyone but th